Galileo

Bertolt Brecht's attack on the dispassion of science gets a masterful film translation by Joseph Losey, who directed the first production of the play (with Charles Laughton). Topol is marvelous, shifting from grimy determination to sweet political naivete as the scientific giant who came to see himself as a moral midget for knuckling under to the Inquisition. Losey's intense yet graceful direction makes this 1974 feature by far the outstanding presentation of the American Film Theatre. Not to be missed. 145 min.
ByDave Kehr